THE ADL®
(Anti-Defamation League) will team with The
Learning Company on a conversion of its Cyber Patrol
"parental control" Internet filtering software that will
also screen out hundreds of Websites the ADL says promote
anti-Semitism and other hate speech. Available in 1998 on
the ADL Web site (www.adl.org), the software will send
surfers who try to access hate sites to the ADL's
anti-hate site. Cost $29.95

--news
item

Surfwatch,
going hand-in-glove with the New-York based ADL, is
producing software to enable schools to block access for
curious minds to "bad sites".

PEOPLE ARE always fascinated by any evidence of the ADL's
so far unsuccessful search for objectivity. Example: You
yourself can key our Website's URL:

http://www.fpp.co.uk

into the Surfwatch engine [CLICK
for the above search page] where you will learn that
this very site, which you are even now visiting, is blocked
and categorised under

"hate/violence".

THE FPP WEBMASTER submitted to
SURFWATCH on Monday, June 22, 1998
that this categorisation is libellous -- a gratuitous smear
-- and invited them: "Please justify these libellous
definitions to enable us to review the site's contents
ourselves. Webmaster, FPP."

NOTE: We do not block on the basis of
sexual preference, nor do we block sites
regarding sexual health, breast cancer, or
sexually transmitted diseases (except in
graphic examples).

Hate Speech

sites advocating or inciting
degradation or attack of specified
populations or institutions based on
associations such as religion, race,
nationality, gender, age, disability,
or sexual orientation

sites which promote a political or
social agenda which is supremacist in
nature and exclusionary of others based
on their race, religion, nationality,
gender, age, disability, or sexual
orientation

Holocaust
revision/denial sites

coercion or recruitment for
membership in a gang* or cult**

NOTE: We do not block news, historical,
or press incidents that may include the
above criteria (except in graphic
examples).

[...]

Hello,

Thanks for submitting this site to be
reviewed for unblocking. The site does meet
SurfWatch blocking criteria for Violence/Hate
Speech, namely the line item regarding Holocaust
revision/denail sites (see our criteria online at
http://www.surfwatch.com/filteringcriteria/core/).
[FPP-WEBSITE
NOTE: SEE GREY PANELS AT LEFT]
The site will remain blocked in our
filters.

Please indicate to us which specific files on
our Website www.fpp.co.uk are alleged to fall foul
of your criteria relating to Holocaust
revision/denial, in order that we can review them
ourselves with a view to meeting your
criticisms.

Meanwhile we shall post our correspondence with
Surfwatch on our Website so that all unblocked
visitors are able to assess your objectivity.

Yours faithfully

Webmaster, FPP

The
considered response ("Hello!") of the Surfwatch censors
arrived a few hours later:

Hello,

There are numerous files on the
http://www.fpp.co.uk which meet the aboveindicated criteria, including

We do not claim that our blocking criteria are
objective criticisms, but are subjective criteria
posted
publicly for SurfWatch users, both current and
prospective, as well as any curious Internet user, to
read and review.

SurfWatch does not receive funding from, or backing
by, any political or religious groups; nor does SurfWatch
have any hidden political or religious agenda. The sites
we block include only those that match our publicly
posted criteria. Our Test-A-Site program
(http://fido.siv.spyglass.com/testasite) provides a place
where any Web site can be tested against our latest
filters to see if the site is blocked by SurfWatch, and
users can submit feedback regarding sites.

We do not expect that every person will agree with
everything that we block or don't block, which is why it
is so important that users be able to customize their
blocking. SurfWatch filtering is completely customizable,
and any user can choose to allow or block sites that we
do not.

From Jamie
McCarthy, an anti-Real
History fanatic who however equally opposes mindless
censorship, this Website received this comment, also sent to
other Free Speech fighters.

Mr. Irving,

SurfWatch's posted criteria for "Violence/Hate Speech"
include "Holocaust revision/denial sites." David Irving is
one of the world's leading figures in that field, if it can
be called a field. He asks SurfWatch to explain why his site
has been so categorized:

You'll have to excuse me saying this, Mr. Irving: to
nit-pick about this would seem a little silly. Your Focal
Point Publications website offers "Revisionist essays" and
promises details on the "First FPP Revisionist Conference"
taking place next year.

In this case, even I would admit that those who buy the
product are getting what they paid for.

SurfWatch might want to clarify for Mr. Irving that their
company in fact has nothing to do with the ADL. Cyber
Patrol, not SurfWatch, has the ill-conceived filter that
directs surfers to the ADL website.

VERY WELL, we shall leave it at that. Any person
finding the two URLs mentioned by you objectionable is in my
view quite a sick bunny. I shall post your reply on my
SurfWatch page, with hyperlinks to the two URLs concerned,
and the rest of the world can now form their own opinion
about your objectivity. Maybe they will applaud; perhaps
they will not.

David IrvingWebmaster, FPP

THOSE
WHO visit our FPP Website and appreciate the quality of
documents and debate which are available here, and only
here, might wish to bring their views to the attention of
the self-appointed censors at Surfwatch; alternatively, if
they applaud this censorship, they are also free to do so.

CORRESPONDENTS have
pointed out that SurfWatch software does NOT block the
Websites of either the Jewish
Defense League(JDL), which
is listed by the FBI as a terrorist organization or
Anti
Racist Action(ARA), which provides rabid mobspitters and preaches
violence against law enforcement personnel.

Website visitors might
like to ask Surfwatch to explain that
inconsistency.

Website visitor
John
Boyle
protested on October 19, 1998 to Surfwatch.

You
block a non-violent site such as FPP, but don't block a
very violent site that is even considered a terrorist
organization the JDL and that by the FBI of this nation!
Where is your logic? That is the most non-sensical piece
of thinking and speaking ever to come out of the mouth of
a supposedly intelligent person I know of!

If you
wish to customize SurfWatch to allow the FPP site and/or
block jdl.org, you can do so by adding custom sites in
your SurfWatch Manager. For more information on the
SurfWatch Manager, please consult the manual that came
with your software. Thank you for your interest in
SurfWatch.